Most of my bike routes around New Paltz involve riding through orchards. They are everywhere. And starting in September, they start to come alive with apples and out-of-town apple pickers. The extent of my picking is usually jumping off my bike mid-ride to grab an apple or a pear off the tree.
Saturday was one of those perfect spring days. Flowers were out everywhere, it was warm enough to wear shorts biking, but cool enough not to over heat. There couldn’t have been a better day for riding up to the Mohonk Mountain House, down the mountain to High Falls and back.
This New York Times article on Crown Maple Syrup inspired me to create a salad dressing using maple syrup. Madava Farms, where Crown Maple is made, is where we held my baby shower last December. Since visiting the farm, I’ve been using Crown Maple all over the place: in my favorite granola recipe, as a topping for yogurt and pancakes, and as a sweetener in my coffee. But I hadn’t yet thought to make a salad dressing with it until this morning.
When I first decided to go gluten free to help control allergies, I struggled to get enough carbs in my diet to fuel my workouts. Without carbs, my workouts would start off ok, but would start to fall apart halfway through. Unable to make it through a 6k swim without my pre-workout bagel, I started and stopped my wheat-free diet three times before it stuck.
Like a lot of triathletes, I rely on my blender to fix quick meals year round. In the spring and summer when I'm training all the time, I make smoothies almost every day to pack in calories and nutrients with minimal effort. This fall, I used the blender as a soup-making machine to stock my freezer so that come January, John and I can enjoy a home cooked meal when we’re sleepwalking through new parenthood.
The Snack: Sliced apples dusted with cinnamon
The Story: Recently Laurel was offered plate of tart, cinnamon dusted apples while getting a hair cut at Fekkai in Soho. It reminded her of when we used to watch our grandmother make apple pie. We would wait for the moment when she would hand us one of the sugar-covered apple slices meant for the pie's filling.
Snack: Grilled cheese with sliced pears
Timing: I eat this snack as my second breakfast since it is savory and my first breakfast is always sweet. It would also make a good afternoon snack, eaten a few hours before running.
Why I like it: It allows me to eat a comfort food in between workouts without feeling sluggish.
The Mix: spiced apples, pumpkin puree, and toasted nuts
The Story: This holiday weekend is one of the busiest apple picking weekends of the year in the Hudson Valley. Some of the local orchards attract busloads, but my favorite is a small, off-the-beaten-path orchard that doesn't advertise or have a corn maze or hayrides, just acres of apples and a small roadside stand. They grow older varieties of apples not sold in stores. Yesterday I picked golden russets, which are brown like a pear on the outside and, on the inside, as tart and crisp as a honey crisp.
"Make this Tonight" suggestions seem to pop up in my inbox often enough to make me feel guilty that I never go home and...make that tonight. Some of the ideas look delicious, sure, but, ever focused, I usually let a hankering for one thing or another determine dinner. 
My gripe about meatless dinners is that I often wake up hungry. I once welcomed the sensation, but no more. As the mother of two young kids, I change two diapers, warm two milks, and get two little mouths nibbling on fruit before I can crack an egg.
For Bec and Laurel, however, if they don’t have time to digest an egg sandwich before their first workout, being underfed translates to underperforming.
